Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 38 (Ronan). 34 (Konrad).
Occupation: Architects.
Instagram: @corpus.studio
Hometown: Paris.
Studio location: Paris.
Describe what you make: We design objects, spaces and atmospheres. Chairs, tables, vases, homes, ashtrays, cafes, lighting, gas stations, restaurants, hotels, churches, nightclubs, tombs, rugs, beach shacks… you name it, as long as it’s driven by authenticity and conviction.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: Our BB collection and particularly the chair was a pivotal point that, in many ways, was instrumental in laying the foundations of our shared creative language. By experimenting through design and production in an iterative process alongside artisans, we were able to explore our ideas about architectural form and tectonics within the limits of a material.
It was an introspective exercise that was deeply rewarding for us as it provided a framework for what we want to express and how to express it. As we design and produce more furniture, it’s interesting to see our overarching ideas evolve and how that influences our architectural projects. Our design work is in many ways a litmus test for our architectural practice.
Describe the problem your work solves: In the first instance, particularly when it comes to our architectural work, we attempt to solve contextual problems unique to each project. In the second instance, we try to evoke emotion, thought, and feeling through design by using composition, light, shadow, scale, color, texture, and sequence. For us, design is more than rational solutions. Design begins where engineering ends.
Describe the project you are working on now: We’re dividing our time between new furniture collaborations, a countryside home renovation in the Champagne region, an ongoing Hausmannian apartment renovation in Paris, and the restoration of a 17th-century silk mill that was actually a summer orphanage during the wars and that will now become an artists’ residency and summer villa at Lake Como.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: We’re very excited to launch a special collection early next year with boutique French furniture company Mono-Editions. The founder, Laetitia Ventura, challenged us to design sustainable objects of desire made from a single material to limit production chain waste. We’re ironing out some details with the first batch of prototypes that will soon be completed. We can’t wait to show the finished product!
What you absolutely must have in your studio: A view to the sky. We’re dreamers.
What you do when you’re not working: Making architectural pilgrimages across Europe or visiting the Saint-Ouen flea market.
Sources of creative envy: Louis Kahn, Sigurd Lewerentz, Gottfried Böhm, Edwin Lutyens, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gunnar Asplund, Paul Dupré-Lafon, Martin Szekely, Vlastislav Hofman, André Dubreuil, Franz West, Yorgos Lanthimos, Luchino Visconti, Andrei Tarkovsky, Richard Serra, Michael Heizer.
The distraction you want to eliminate: Admin.
Concrete or marble? Concrete bunker with a marble bathtub.
High-rise or townhouse? High-rise.
Remember or forget? First remember, then forget.
Aliens or ghosts? Aliens. The potential of another designed reality other than our own, that has evolved in unique conditions with different materials, symbols, philosophy, and even physics, is absolutely fascinating and the imagination runs wild.
Dark or light? Something that requires both—shadow. In-between dark and light is a depth that speaks to the soul.
(Portrait photography by Matthew Avignone.)
